Violent Delights
by FitzDizzyspells8
Summary: Ted and Andromeda, newly married, have fled to Verona to seek cover within the chaos of Carnevale and avoid a doomed fate in war-torn wizarding Britain. But some consequence still hangs in the stars. Winner of DLP's 2019 Q4.1 competition.


_A/N: Several people to thank: lawyer, for his incisive beta work; Pashow, for reviewing and fixing my Italian; jenorama, from whom I unwittingly stole an idea; and the DLP crew, who both inspired and critiqued this story._

* * *

Andromeda could see now that this was a spectacularly stupid idea, and she clutched the drink in her hand as if it was the only thing that could protect her.

It wasn't crowded enough. The plan had been to hide in plain sight. But as she and Ted stood in robes and cloaks among Italian Muggles who were not at all in fancy dress as she'd expected and who had crowded beside the road to let parade floats rumble by, it was clear that the two of them were not remotely what would be considered "in hiding." They were just in plain sight.

They really should've gone to Venice instead.

"This can't be all there is," she muttered quietly to him. "The Muggles have got to be off cavorting somewhere, at some bigger party."

It was strange to see apprehension in the eyes of Ted Tonks, who, as recently as a few hours ago, had nothing but confidence in their plan to flee to Verona.

He swallowed and adjusted his grip on her freezing hand. "I think this is it."

The two of them ought to have done their research. Yes, there were plenty of people here in elaborate outfits, but the vast majority of them were in the parade, not the crowd. A horse-drawn carriage ambled by, carrying a group of people, and a young boy wearing a felt hat tossed a handful of confetti into the air. For a moment all Andromeda could see was a blur of white paper squares.

"But, luckily," he said, "this isn't what we came here for." He grinned and brushed some of the confetti out of her hair, and there he was again — optimistic to a fault. "But let's hurry. And we should wear our masks."

"They're looking at us like we're mad," she muttered, pulling the intricately painted mask over her face as Ted did the same.

"Well, we bought the masks from _their_ Muggle shops. So I don't think we look mad, I think we just look like a couple of foreign wankers."

Andromeda's lip twitched. It was true that the Muggles who were giving them curious looks simply seemed entertained, rather than bewildered. Perhaps it hadn't been completely insane to assume that two young, giddy newlyweds could blend in wearing robes during Carnevale.

"If anything, _this_," he said, tapping the goblet in her hand, "is drawing more attention than anything else."

"Just let me have the things that make me feel better, Tonks."

Andromeda could hear muffled laughter behind his mask as he began pulling her through the crowd.

She wasn't exactly sure how the floats were rolling down the road, but the smells and sounds were similar to Muggle London's motor cars. Music was blaring unnaturally loudly from places that Andromeda couldn't detect. For every person in the parade or the crowd who looked like they were having fun, three others looked bored or cold. The weather in Verona today was depressingly British, and even many of the people who were larking about in fancy dress — cheap imitations of finery — had hidden their attire under drab jackets.

_This_ was Carnevale, the celebration of revelry and debauchery? She couldn't even carry a drink without —

There was a sudden jerk at her hand, and Ted collapsed in front of her.

Andromeda's scream emerged from her throat before she could stop herself. "_Ted? Ted!" _She fell to her knees, and luckily he appeared to still be conscious. She tucked her hand under his head, and he looked up at her.

"Ah, now that's not the 'Dromeda I know and love." He laughed. "I prefer the woman who pretends not to know me when I fall over."

"I thought…" Her voice cracked. "I thought that they… "

"You thought one day I'd stop making an arse of myself? No, 'fraid this is the wizard you've pledged your life to." He pulled the both of them up with a grunt. "Bloody pavement… "

"We have to get to the Porta Leoni _now_." Her eyes darted across all the people who were giving them slightly alarmed looks since she'd screamed. "I don't want to be out here, exposed, any longer. They've sent people after us, I'm certain of it..."

"Well, where do you think I'm taking us? Come on, we're almost there."

His voice was light, but Andromeda gripped his hand tighter and she began to lead the way herself. They'd been so reckless, so foolish, and it was going to get them both killed. The lie that had propelled them into this situation — that this risk was somehow important, somehow worthwhile — was beginning to break apart in her head. If Ted's life was worth fighting for, the bravest thing she could've done in the midst of war was ignore him and let him fall in love with someone, _anyone, _else. What was romantic about putting an absolutely perfect person into a situation that could get him tortured and killed?

He cleared his throat gently. "Turn left here."

"I know where we're going," she lied.

"I know. I know you do." After a pause, he added, "You weren't scared enough to spill your drink, I noticed."

"Well." She sniffed. "Not all of us stumble around like a Diricawl that's been poorly transfigured into a person."

"Now, see, there's the woman I fell in love with."

They turned a corner, and Andromeda finally spied the landmark they'd been seeking. An ancient Roman archway — built thousands of years ago and now bizarrely serving as the left wall to a kitschy gelato shop — loomed before them. The archway was crumbling and slightly dirty, but nonetheless awe-inspiring in its antiquity. It was no longer something you could walk through — anyone looking directly at it would simply see a solid wall on the other side.

"So… how's this supposed to this work?" Ted asked.

"Follow me." She crossed the street and approached the ruins. A thin black railing protected the archway from the public, but Andromeda easily swung her legs over it and hopped down to the other side, goblet still in hand.

"The ground's a bit lower on this side," she said, looking up at the archway she was standing beneath, "so be careful you don't stumble."

Ted made a derisive noise through his mask. "I think I can manage to jump a _railing_, thanks." Still, Andromeda tried not to laugh as she watched him step as gingerly as possible, placing one foot carefully on the center bar before sitting on the top bar, then hooking one leg over it down to the center bar on the other side, before he was finally under the arch with her.

"Better than the barrier at King's Cross, that's for sure," he grumbled.

Andromeda smiled at the memory. The first time she'd ever suggested to him that he might be the product of some ill-advised transfiguration was after she'd watched him crash head-on into the wrong wall at the station. It would've been a typical Slytherin's encounter with a Hufflepuff, if Andromeda hadn't been moved by a force she still didn't fully understand to offer her hand and help him up with a smirk. That day had been the first time in her life she'd spent the journey to Hogwarts with someone other than her sisters.

"Right. So." Ted turned to Andromeda as they huddled under the archway. "You've still not answered my question. How's this supposed to work?"

She cleared her throat and clenched her eyes shut. "_Tutte le strade conducono a Roma,"_ she whispered. She opened her eyes to see Ted looking around.

"Er," he said, "was that meant to do something?"

"I don't understand! That's exactly what all the guidebooks tell you to say!"

Ted cocked his head. "I think your pronunciation's a bit off."

"What?" she said, affronted. "No it isn't!"

He cleared his throat and repeated what she said, and the words did sound slightly different to her ears.

Their surroundings changed with a sudden, jarring _CRACK! _and Andromeda gasped. The grey world they'd been in was suddenly replaced with one so vibrant that she could barely take in the scene before her.

The noise hit her first. Andromeda had never before heard music and conversation drown each other out simultaneously. As people laughed and shouted over the accordions and mandolins, the players were somehow able to increase their volume, until people shrieked over the music, and the musicians met them in kind.

She tried to make sense of the enormous courtyard and the blur of colors before her. Andromeda wondered if the wizards in Verona dressed in Renaissance attire every day, or if it was just for the occasion. Slowly, she took in the details — the elaborate clothing and masks, confetti, fountains, puffs of smoke, the shop fronts that circled the courtyard.

The crowd flowed and quivered and jerked and twitched — everyone was dancing, drinking, gesticulating, singing and shouting, all at once.

Ted turned to her. "Is this the sort of cavorting you were looking for?" he asked, and she could hear his smile.

Above the courtyard, an enormous cloud of colorful confetti exploded from out of nowhere, and the crowd cheered. Andromeda didn't hesitate — she pulled back Ted's mask and her own, then drew him toward her and kissed him to savor the first moment in days she'd felt anything other than fear. From the moment they'd eloped and fled from Britain on broomsticks, a voice in her head had been screaming that she'd doomed them both. Learning how to sneak into wizarding Carnevale didn't silence that voice entirely. But at least it paused for breath.

* * *

"_Cent' anni!"_ someone shouted, raising his goblet in a toast with his friends, and Andromeda stifled a gasp as red wine sloshed into the air and down her shoulder, soaking through her robes. The wizard turned with a semi-concerned laugh, his face partially obscured by a black Zanni mask. "_Scusi. Scusi, signorina_." He offered a smile that seemed insidious beneath the enormous beak-like nose of his mask.

He drew his wand, and Andromeda tensed. Ted pulled her back, but not before the wizard twisted his wand in an animated little spiral and tapped Andromeda's sleeve to vanish the wine. "_Scialla,"_ he said, laughing.

Andromeda smiled weakly back as Ted tugged her away. "Right, cheers," Ted said. "'Scuse us."

The crowd was pressing in on them from all directions, but Andromeda didn't mind in the least. Wizarding Verona offered the most remarkable people-watching opportunities. She reached out her hand, unable to keep herself from grazing the stiff, starched neck ruff that a witch was wearing. The woman turned sharply — her face was painted a shimmering, startling shade of purple — and Andromeda stumbled through a flock of fairies in the air only to fall into another witch who had fresh flowers blooming from her robes and delicate phoenix feathers adorning her mask.

"Sorry," Andromeda gasped.

People were sat all around the edge of an enormous stone fountain, and she and Ted squeezed into a cramped space. Occasional flecks of moisture dotted her arm as a group of witches shrieked and splashed several meters away, knee-deep in the water as they cackled their way through a tarantella dance.

Ted pulled his mask back on, and Andromeda was happy to do the same. She needed something to hide her stupid grin as she watched these dazzling people contort their hands into shapes she'd never seen before to express a trillion different subtle messages as they talked, and the movements seemed to flow seamlessly from mere hand gestures into artful wand waving. The casting motions that people were using were unlike anything she'd seen in Flitwick's class before — overly emphatic and complicated, downright labyrinthine. She found herself getting lost in the everyday magic people were performing.

She jumped about a foot in the air as an enormous rabbit's face entered her field of vision. A man clad in golden robes, who had likely transfigured his head, leaned down toward them and offered a plate of gnocchi.

His ears and nose twitched in amusement as Ted and Andromeda stared, slightly horror-struck.

"Er." Ted fumbled in his pockets and brought out a collection of Italian wizarding coins. The rabbit-man shook his head, and Ted and Andromeda tentatively grabbed the plate, before the strange wizard simply turned with a wink and left.

Andromeda hadn't realized just how famished she was. They both pulled back their masks again, devouring the gnocchi in seconds, and she was hit with a wave of exhaustion that she hadn't allowed herself to feel since they'd arrived in Italy.

"So, just to confirm, the plan is that we have no plan, correct?" she asked.

Ted swallowed slowly. "We can pass out in the parks here. It happens all the time — people sleeping in the streets in wizarding Verona during Carnevale. It'll be packed for days. That's our plan — we lie low here, we figure out our next move. We just need to be on the move till the bastards get bored."

Her response caught in her throat, too bleak and unhelpful to say aloud: _They'll never get bored. _

Then Andromeda glanced up, and she stopped breathing. They hadn't even had a moment to be afraid, hadn't had a moment to flail helplessly, to wonder what could be done or how they could extract themselves from the doomed moment that they found themselves in now.

Someone in black robes and an all-too-familiar bone-white mask was leaning in close to them, perversely touching Ted's cheek. The Death Eater was close enough that Andromeda could tell he was a man — by his broad body, by the way he clasped both of their shoulders and leaned in. Ted's hand twitched, and she fumbled to take it until she realized, foolishly, that Ted was going for his wand.

"Tonks!" the man said, pulling off his mask. "Merlin's leaking, flaccid knob, mate — I can't believe you're here!"

Ted was paler than Andromeda had ever seen him before. "W… Warrington? Blimey, mate, what… what are you doing here?"

"Same as you, I expect. Here on holiday! Nice to be out of school so we can see the world, isn't it?"

Ted winced as Warrington, who was clearly drunk, slapped Ted's cheek good-naturedly. Warrington's other hand was still painfully gripping Andromeda's shoulder.

He'd been in Hufflepuff, a year above Ted. Andromeda hadn't known him to associate with anyone connected to the Dark Lord at all, and she began to doubt herself. The mask seemed awfully similar to the ones Death Eaters wore, but they weren't particularly distinctive. It could just be a coincidence.

"I've been following this group of witches and wizards around since I arrived two days ago." Warrington continued blathering on, wide-eyed and overly enthusiastic. "Truth be told, I'm not even completely certain they're Italian. I can't understand a single word out of their mouths, but they seem to like me. One of them's been carrying a wineskin everywhere he goes — a bloody _wineskin!_ — and at this point I'm convinced it magically refills itself. And this witch, I carried her around on my shoulders all last night — Tonks, mate, she's got a friend, I could introduce you…"

Ted was still deathly pale, but he shot Andromeda a look of bewildered amusement as Warrington continued to talk that so clearly said, "_What is _happening _right now?"_ that her nerves got the better of her and she burst into manic giggles.

Warrington stopped, confused, then grinned at the goblet she'd set down by her feet. "Having a good time yourself, I can see."

"Right. It was good seeing you, mate." Ted's shaking voice betrayed his light tone. "Best be off, we were actually just leaving…"

Warrington's face fell comically. "But today's meant to be the most fun day, you can't leave today!"

"Places to go, people to see."

"Well, let me at least introduce you to my mates before you go," Warrington said, waving to a group of people. A few of them waved enthusiastically and shouted back at him. Andromeda finally allowed herself to relax, but something caught her eye. A few paces from the group of friends stood a young witch, her back turned. The fabric of her black, pointed hat was fine and elegant, which contrasted starkly with the ragged tip of the point.

A cat had chewed up the top of that hat a couple of years ago. Andromeda knew this, because it had been her cat.

Andromeda grabbed Ted's arm just as Bella turned and met her sister's eyes. Bella pointed her wand at them with a look of crazed fury, and Andromeda twisted on the spot. Nothing happened.

"_Avada Kedavra!" _

Bella's curse was strong but her aim was not, and the stone fountain exploded. Dust and rubble mingled with the sickly green light in the air, triggering a stampede as people screamed. The fear that had been residing in Andromeda's chest swelled and threatened to suffocate her as she and Ted began to run. The screaming was deafening—it took a while before Andromeda realized she was screaming too.

Andromeda lost sight of Bella as bodies collided against each other in retreat. Several explosions rang in the air as people overexerted themselves to attempt Apparition in vain. A tide of people streamed between Andromeda and Ted, breaking their hands apart as they all raced to the portal to Muggle Verona.

Her wide eyes darted around the crowds, looking for Bella as frantically as she was looking for Ted. Intrusive delusions flashed across her mind — her sister standing over Ted's broken body, wand raised, green light dissipating.

"ANDROMEDA!"

She twisted in the direction of his voice to see Ted pushing against the tide of people, and they reached each other in the crowd.

"C'mon," he said urgently, "we've got to — "

He seized up suddenly and fell like a rock.

"Ted!" She crouched down to pull him up, and to her horror, she saw his wand levitate up, out of his robes and into the crowd. He looked up at her with wild eyes; his body had gone completely rigid. She took out her wand, but she was suddenly blasted back.

Before Andromeda even hit the ground, she could already feel the Cruciatus Curse ripping through her body. Her screams mingled with her sister's as Bella pointed her wand down at her.

"_Tell me he Imperiused you!" _Bella's voice was ragged. "_Tell me he kidnapped you, tell me it's not too late to save you!"_

Bella cast the same Unforgivable again, and another blazing round of pain pierced Andromeda's body so acutely that she felt her sanity stretch to its limits, on the edges of permanently shattering. Bella had the look of a loved one who was administering a searing Healing Charm that burned before it soothed, like she thought the Cruciatus might purify her corrupted sister.

Andromeda's limbs contorted in unnatural angles as she writhed on the ground, and she continued to twitch slightly even as Bella slowed the curse. Bella put her face in her hands and gave a horrible scream of agony that reverberated off the timeworn bricks around them. The crowds by the fountain were long gone; people were bottlenecked at the portal where Andromeda and Ted had arrived.

Even once the curse was over, its white-hot pain continued to throb through Andromeda's body, and she turned to her side and retched. Her wand was there, just out of reach, and she reached weakly for it. But Bella gave a flick of her own wand and Andromeda's wand flew into her free hand.

"I'll kill you first," Bella said hoarsely as her eyes bored into her sister's. Both of them were trembling. "I don't even care about him. I'll kill you first, because what you did was so much worse. Of course he wanted you, what Mudblood wouldn't? You were the closest he would ever get to magic, you were perfect. But you just gave yourself to him like you were worth nothing." Bella's face was wet with tears. "And now you are worth nothing."

Andromeda, who was beginning to regain some of her strength, scrambled numbly to her feet. She didn't even bother pleading, she knew it was useless. To Bella, she was already dead. All she could do was run, and she stumbled a few steps before her sister raised her wand.

A sudden splash of vibrant purple liquid drenched the side of Bella's face, and she jerked towards the source. Ted dropped Andromeda's goblet to the ground with a clang before flinging himself at Bellatrix. They scuffled on the ground briefly as Bella shrieked, both of them trying to gain control of her wand. But it was clear the drugs were quick, and a moment later, Bella stopped struggling. As her body slackened, unconscious, Ted pulled both his and Andromeda's wands out of a pocket in Bella's robes and got to his feet, breathing heavily.

He turned to Andromeda with a stern look. "I don't want you drinking that anymore. That stuff's far too strong." He took her hand and started walking briskly, pulling her down an alley.

"I — I thought that — " It felt like something was pressing on Andromeda's lungs, and she was having trouble catching her breath. "I thought I might have trouble sleeping in a park."

"And haven't you ever heard of a flask? I know wizards have them, I've seen Filch sneak sips all the time."

"Dreamless Sleep Potion can't be covered or sealed up." Andromeda was having trouble forming coherent thoughts and words about what had just happened, and she seized on the opportunity to talk about something simple, like Fourth Year Potions. "It has to breathe, otherwise it loses its potency. I — I don't understand — how did you escape the Full Body Bind Curse?"

"Someone nixed Bella's spell and helped me up before they buggered off." Ted gave a weak laugh. "Funny how it never occurs to your family that people might help us along the way."

Andromeda wasn't sure whether Ted's hand was shaking or if she was merely transferring her tremors to him. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "I'm sorry that you have to sleep in a park because of me," he added softly.

"Wait." Andromeda blinked. "You can't be thinking of staying here? Bella will wake up eventually, and what if there are others?"

"No, no, I know. I'm just sorry for — for all — " He grasped for the words, and Andromeda saw pain flicker briefly in his eyes. He shook his head. "Anyway, I'm not sure how we'll leave. There's a slight snag." He pointed in the direction of the portal, where it seemed like the entire Carnevale crowd was still huddled. "Someone — likely Bellatrix — has magically blocked that entranceway. So we've got to find another way out of here, and quickly."

Andromeda bit her lip. "If it's anything like Diagon Alley, there's only one way in and one way out."

He swore. "Well, then, what have we got left? We ditched our brooms, and Apparition's out… D'you reckon Italy has a Knight Bus?"

"There is one more option."

Ted frowned. "Is there?"

Andromeda glanced at a cluster of outdoor tables placed in the back garden of a small building. She approached it softly, then peered through the window to see what looked like a restaurant's stockroom. It was completely dark. There was a fireplace in the corner.

She pointed her wand at the window, and the glass vanished.

"Floo powder," she said to Ted.

* * *

The two of them carefully climbed over a large wooden barrel as they stepped into the stockroom. Andromeda squinted through the darkness, carefully making her way past aisles of tall shelves, each one crammed with bottles, boxes and crates. Something was bubbling in a large black cauldron in the corner, and on the far end of the wall was a massive collection of dusty wine bottles, with detailed labels containing words and numbers scribbled on bits of parchment underneath each bottle.

Andromeda moved towards the fireplace. Her gut twisted when she saw there was nothing on the mantelpiece — no fish bowl, no flower pot, no tarnished silver snuff box holding the glittering dust they needed for their freedom.

Ted shot her a nervous look.

"It must be around here somewhere," she whispered stubbornly. "Wizards always have Floo powder by their fireplaces."

They began to scour the room as quietly as they could. They looked through any containers on the ground, large or small, and opened up little burlap pouches that were hung on hooks along the shelves. They gave up trying to read the Italian labels and simply began opening anything containing fine powder, hastily sniffing garlic, coriander, paprika.

Andromeda felt her panic rising and started rummaging behind items on the shelves while Ted examined the area by the wine.

"Andromeda…" he muttered. "Look at this."

She glanced across the room to see him holding a bottle in his hand. "This isn't really the time to admire a fine Bordeaux, darling," she said, frantically pushing aside a cluster of candles. Maybe this establishment was hiding their Floo powder for security reasons.

"Trust me. You need to see this."

Baffled, she walked over to see Ted pointing to the handmade parchment labels under each bottle.

"Look," he said. "This one says '_Salonicco, Grecia.'_ And then look at these numbers." An odd assortment of lengthy figures had been scribbled beneath the two words: 40.651350, 22.961545

She shook her head in frustration. "I don't understand. Why have you stopped looking?"

"These numbers ... Andromeda ... I think these wines are—_Ouch, shit_."

He'd stumbled as he turned to her abruptly, banging into one of the rickety shelves in the process. It swayed dangerously, and the two of them frantically put out their hands to steady it, but it was too late. The top of the shelf tapped the one beside it, and Andromeda's eyes widened in horror as she anticipated the domino effect.

_"No, no, no, no—"_ Ted hissed.

It happened in a matter of seconds — the wooden shelves clattered against one another and their contents began to stream to the floor, producing a cloud of dust and spices and a horrifying cacophony while stone jugs burst open and glass containers splattered sauces against the wall. Andromeda smothered her gasp with her hands. She wouldn't be surprised if all of wizarding Verona heard the ruckus.

In a moment of madness, Andromeda and Ted tried to sort out the wreckage before they glanced at each other, regained their sanity, and darted for the window.

"You aren't honestly stealing the wine?" she cried incredulously, glancing at the bottle that was still in his hand.

"That's what I was trying to tell you, it's—"

"FERMARE!" came an accented voice, which only made them scramble more frantically toward the window. "STOP!"

Andromeda was just barely able to get her knee on top of the barrel before she found herself paralyzed. Her fingers twitched desperately toward the cold air at the glass-less window. She felt Ted's rapid pulse in her other hand. She couldn't turn to look at him, but as she clutched his wrist she could tell he was as frozen as she was.

A wizard's boots thudded slowly on the stockroom's stone ground, and Andromeda could just barely make out an old man in her peripheral vision as he rounded on them. His wand flicked back and forth between Andromeda and Ted.

"Ridiculous English tourists, breaking everything in sight," the wizard muttered, rolling his r's slightly. "Have you no respect?"

"We just—want—to get out of Verona." Ted's voice was tight as he struggled to speak. "Let us get out of your city, and the person—who sparked all this—will leave, too."

The wizard shuffled closer as Ted spoke, and his eyes narrowed as he eyed them both. "I see. _You_ are the reason for all this chaos today." He was balding and had an airy white beard that quivered as he spoke. For some reason, it made Andromeda inexplicably nervous that he was wearing simple brown robes during Carnevale.

"My sister is after us," Andromeda choked out. "Let us go, and she'll have no reason to be here anymore."

The wizard surveyed them quietly for a moment. "Interesting," he said slowly. "I would think that the fastest way to banish that person from my city would be to give up the people she wants."

Andromeda's heart was pounding, and her lungs strained against her frozen muscles.

"Then take me," Ted said.

Her neck tensed as she tried to turn in the direction of Ted's despairing voice. "Don't be stupid," she breathed.

The wizard frowned and said nothing, wand still raised.

"You heard what Bella said," she continued. Her eyes were still locked on the window they'd nearly reached. "It's me they want."

Ted gave a hollow laugh. "Bellatrix is the only one who wants you to suffer. We both know what the Death Eaters really want, what You-Know-Who wants. They want to make an example of me. It's me they want to kill." He took an unsteady breath. "I'm the one who put you in this spot, 'Dromeda. You'd have a comfortable life if it wasn't for me. I've cursed you. So let me go."

The old man considered Ted for a moment. "_Expelliarmus." _For the second time that day, Andromeda and Ted's wands flew out of their robes, and the wizard caught them in his free hand. "I'll want my wine back, too," he muttered.

"The deal is that you let my wife go. She'll need to have one to drink."

Andromeda wondered, not for the first time, whether this whole day had just been some bizarre fever dream. She prayed Ted was making some absurd attempt at distraction, that if the wizard decided to nullify the Body Bind hex, Ted would pick her up and make a break for the window again.

"I'll let you both drink from one," the old wizard said. "_Finite."_

Andromeda stumbled on her unsteady legs. She grabbed Ted by his robes and made a desperate lunge for the window, but Ted held her back.

" 'Dromeda—"

"Ted, hurry!"

"No, 'Dromeda, stop."

"What are you doing?" She couldn't believe he was going to let this happen. If anything, _she _was the one who needed to turn herself in, not him. She felt her heart break as Ted held her firm. He looked far too accepting of the plan—downright relieved.

"We're going to be okay," Ted said. "He's going to let us both go."

Andromeda stared, nonplussed, at Ted, then at the old wizard as he placed an empty wine glass in her hand. He gave a similar one to Ted.

Ted gave a weak laugh. "They're Portkeys," he said.

The wizard used his wand to uncork the bottle. "It will engage in a couple of minutes, now that I've opened the bottle."

"What?" Andromeda said. The wizard poured red wine into her glass. "I don't understand. Why are you letting us go?"

The wizard was silent for a while as he filled Ted's glass. She looked at Ted, who shook his head, baffled.

"I happen to believe," the wizard finally said, "that love is a magic worth fighting for. I believe it conquers all."

Andromeda blinked. "Love conquers all?" she repeated incredulously.

"Yes."

She gave an inadvertent laugh of disbelief. "But it doesn't." She felt phantom waves of pain briefly course through her, and she thought of Bella's face. "Love makes you _conquerable_. My husband almost _died_ today because of me, and he still might."

" 'Dromeda." Ted shot her a nervous look. "Let's let the man help us—"

"I've painted a target on my husband's back, just because I wanted him in my life," she said, her voice shaking. "Do you think my sister would've bothered to track me down if she didn't love me? Love _drove_ her here! Ted could've survived this war if it weren't for me, but now—"

"Andi. Andi." Ted put his hands on her arms, the wine glass still in his hand. "My chances of surviving this war have always been slim. I should've left years ago."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you!" The voice in her head was screaming again, nearly drowning out Ted. "You ought to have left me, you would've had a normal life—"

"Not _you,_ Andi," Ted said with a sad smile. "The whole wizarding world."

Andromeda wiped her face even as a softer round of tears started to fall. The old wizard glanced away from them and pointed his wand at the wreckage in the room. '_Reparo.' _His charm was startlingly strong.

Ted didn't even glance away from her as the broken shelves began to creak back together and right themselves. "I should've said 'thanks but no thanks' years ago to a war-torn society that wants me dead," he said. "It would've been the rational thing to do. But I'm not rational; I'm a wizard." Plumes of spices rose into the air while particles of dust separated from the spices as if repelled. Candles piled back into wooden crates, and broken glass clinked into place in the air to re-form delicate jars. "I want this strange, extraordinary life of magic with you."

The old wizard pocketed his wand. The storeroom had been restored, as quickly as it had been destroyed.

"Admit it," Ted continued softly, "don't you want this life too?"

She took a breath and looked up at him. "Well," she said, "the Blacks have never been known for their sanity."

"That's never been clearer to me than it is right now." He grinned at her and turned back to the wizard. "She didn't talk you out of it now, did she?"

"No." He frowned, glancing between the two of them as he handed back their wands. "But it is strange that she tried."

"Well. She has been through a lot today," Ted said, and she took his hand. "What do you say, Andi? _Cent' anni_? A hundred years?"

He raised his glass, and their red wines suddenly glowed bright blue.

She clinked her glass against his, but not before she gave an exasperated groan. "You're still not allowed to call me _Andi_, no matter how married we are."

Ted started to laugh, and it was the most magical thing she'd seen all day. They drank deeply and quickly, and with a sudden jerk, they were gone.


End file.
